What Exactly WAS The Protestant Reformation?

[Christian4life]

Wow thank you all for your answers. Some of you obviously put a lot of thought and time into your replies and I really do appreciate that. I’m also glad to find some of you have listed books and sources where I can get more info. That’s pretty much what I was looking for so thank you.

What a confusing time in history! I still haven’t quite decided what to make of all of it, whether it was even necessary or not. I will definately share this thread with my husband as I’m sure he will be very interested to learn your viewpoints as well.

Again, thanks.

 

[Christian4life]

I just have one more question. Considering all that has happened in the past, why do you think the church is reformed now? I sometimes consider the idea of converting to Catholicism, but when I just look around me, all the Catholics I personally know save maybe one are just as secular and immoral as any non-Christian I know. The statistics show that more Catholics are having abortions than evangelical Protestants, even though the Catholic church is so against it. Then there is the idol worship which I have seen which I know the church does NOT approve of but still goes on in the church. There are just too many people who put their faith in the saints and leave God out of the picture altogethor. They even really on talismans to protect them instead of praying to God. Why? Doesn’t the church know?

So I guess what I want to know is, if the church is good, and I think it is, why are the people in it SO bad?? If the church needed reforming at one point, doesn’t that mean anything? How do you know it won’t go sour again, and you’ll be dragged down with it? What if your next Pope tells you it is okay to steal? Will you believe him? Haven’t there been bad popes in the past?

Sorry, I guess that was more than one question. I just want to make sure and tell you all I am not trying to offend anyone but I’ve been struggling with these questions and would really like to know what you think!

 

[Mickey]

Christian4life:

So I guess what I want to know is, if the church is good, and I think it is, why are the people in it SO bad?? If the church needed reforming at one point, doesn’t that mean anything? How do you know it won’t go sour again, and you’ll be dragged down with it? What if your next Pope tells you it is okay to steal? Will you believe him? Haven’t there been bad popes in the past?

Hi C4life,

The Church never went sour in the first place. Doctrine was never affected. It was certain abuses perpetrated by man that was in need of reform. This reform would have happened regardless of the reformation. Remember, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. This was a promise! As far as those individuals who were corrupted in those days, (including bad popes of the past), these misguided people and certain bad popes did not change doctrine! All mankind sins–but doctrine does not sin–it is revealed truth.

Your brother in Christ,
Mickey

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Christian, if you’re going to judge the Catholic faith by

all the Catholics I personally know

, you aren’t properly going to judge at all. Surely you don’t judge your own faith solely on the basis of how your fellow believers act, but on what you believe is the truth of your beliefs.

The Faith is perfect and unchanging–people, OTOH, are imperfect and ever-changing. As we change, we can sometimes see things more clearly or more deeply; conversely, we can also start to see things less clearly, more shallowly. The Magisterium helps all of us Catholics, from the Catholics of the past, to the Catholics of today, to the Catholics of the future, so that we don’t, in areas of faith and morals in the Church itself, fall into error. That doesn’t mean that any individual Catholic from the Pope on down can’t sin, or err. . .but no Pope has ever taught error as truth, no matter what his own personal foibles may have been.